


Drive-In

by Infini



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Drive-In Theatre, Gen, Movie Night, Totally Plausible Situations, Valentine's Day Gift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 14:34:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1188774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infini/pseuds/Infini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not all aspects of humanity are terrible, despite what certain seekers might think.  Knock Out endeavours to change Starscream's opinion, by sharing one of his own favourite parts of fleshie culture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drive-In

**Author's Note:**

> A Valentine's gift for violetstatic, over on tumblr. She wanted something cute and silly, featuring Starscream. :)  
> I did have a movie in mind when I wrote this, though it's not particularly obvious. A free internet to whoever who can guess!
> 
> Enjoy!

It had taken days to properly sort everything out, not that Starscream would ever know it.  ‘Borrowing’ equipment, carrying it through conveniently-timed groundbridges, convincing various Eradicons to fill in while he was out of the medbay, delaying multiple long drives he could have taken down open highways…  But it would be worth it, Knock Out knew, once he got the seeker down here on solid ground.

It wasn’t that hard to convince him to take a flight to a specific location, not when Megatron had been venting down his dorsal plating and any excuse at all to get off the _Nemesis_ was a good one; the rapidly approaching lights in the night sky were evidence to how eager he was for a little relaxation.  And the confused look on his face when he transformed and touched down almost made the effort worthwhile, all on its own.

“What is this?”

“This, Commander, is a drive-in theatre.”

The seeker frowned at the setting, its large blank screen with an empty paved square in front, and a couple of tiny human-built edifices which appeared in a very poor state of repair.  He took a few paces around the space, as though inspecting it for flaws or hidden weapons, but circled back without any immediate offers of criticism.

“Not a very high-class one, I’ll admit.”  Knock Out rolled one pauldron, leaning a hand against the roof of the shack and gesturing with the other.  “But what can you do on such a backward planet?”

“And there won’t be any humans showing up to reclaim this…”  Trailing off, Starscream glanced around again.  Perhaps it wasn’t rough edges he had been inspecting for.

“Hardly,” the medic purred, arching a brow until it vanished beneath the edge of his helm.  “There are no fleshies within a twenty-minute drive of here.  And if any of them do show up, we’ll hear them coming long before we’re within their pitiful sensory range.”

There was a long moment of silence as the Decepticon second in command contemplated this.  He seemed somewhat wary of the whole situation, or at least its location.  Starscream was, understandably, a bit distrustful of all things human; after his run-in with those despicable MECH creatures, who wouldn’t be?  But in the end he shrugged, which was about as much acknowledgement as one might expect.

“How does all of this work, then?”

Acceptance!  Knock Out flashed the seeker a grin, and walked a quick circuit of the paved space while offering an explanation.

“The humans come to these spaces to watch films in their vehicles.  It was easy enough to fit myself in among them without too much attention...”  He’d received just the right amount, thank you very much.  “Of course, since there aren’t any humans for miles, I don’t believe there’s much need to stay in vehicle mode.”

“Well, good,” Starscream muttered, only just loud enough to be overheard.  He watched the medic reach inside the little edifice, and after a few moments, a light emerged from what had once been a window.  And since he’d been standing directly in its path, he found himself temporarily blinded.  Vocal notice of his dissatisfaction was made, and promptly dismissed.

“Stay out of the way of it, why don’t you?”  An energon crate was dragged out from somewhere, presumably behind the little shack, and Knock Out sat down on it before leaning back against the building.  “Sit down, it’s starting.”

Much to Starscream’s surprise, there was another metal box on the other side of the building.  He took his seat without verbal complaint, leaning an elbow against one knee.  The silence lasted all of fifteen seconds.

“If you were so desperate to watch human films, you could have done this on the Nemesis...”

“My dear Starscream,” the grounder drawled, smiling without ever removing optics from the screen, “Have you ever tried to do anything _fun_ on that ship?  If you don’t have Megatron calling for something or other, it’s Soundwave poking and prodding into other peoples’ business.  And let’s not forget the Eradicons, and their love of all this Earth culture… The last time I tried watching anything, there were six of them in the corridor, all trying very hard to conceal their reactions during the climax.”

He waved a hand at the screen, as strains of music began leaking from the speakers nestled to either side.

“ _This_ is how such things are meant to be enjoyed.”

As the characters began their introductory scene, the seeker tried very hard not to voice his concerns about the juvenile quality of the apparent storytelling.  When one of the main characters was a human child, one tended to have these concerns… but he saw Knock Out watching him from of the corner of his optic, and vowed to keep such thoughts to himself.  If the film truly was awful, he could save his critique for the end, when he had the most evidence to back up his assertions.

But such thoughts were soon forgotten.  The medic had already seen this particular tale, as he wouldn’t have dared screen something he didn’t know was good, especially when the second in command’s appreciation of human artwork was flimsy at best.  In all honesty, his own reasons for initially watching this particular film were shallow; the style of animation had reminded him of the tap-dancing simian from the Earthly datanet.  But in spite of its simplistic visual presentation, the story was expansive, and quite deep.  Even if it was intended to appeal to human children, Knock Out wasn’t sure he would show it to newsparks.  They tended to get so emotional when seeing scenes of anger or danger, even when they were fictional.

Then again, that was a trait that didn’t limit itself to the newly-built.  By the time one of the main characters was tied to a rocket by a horrifying human, Starscream was staring in wide-optic horror, wringing his hands as though he could resolve the situation by the force of his grip.  Only an offer of energon chips was enough to disengage the tightly-clenched digits, but the force with which he grabbed the offered box may have crushed most of the snacks inside…  Not that he noticed, as the seeker began chewing through them at an alarming rate.  Knock Out gave up any hope of another handful, and instead contenting himself with noting how the rigidly high wings quivered in response to the mounting tension.

The ending was, as with most good films, both positive and satisfying.  Starscream was so visibly relieved that everything had worked out in the end that the medic had to stifle a laugh.  He opened his mouth to ask the seeker’s opinion, but someone else beat him to it.

<So, what are we watching next?>

Starscream shrieked and fell off his crate.  Knock Out jumped halfway across the pavement, nearly tripping on an old fence post.

“ _Laserbeak!_ ”

<Hi.>  The deployer flicked his wings, engine churring with blatant amusement.

“What are you doing here?!”  The medic recovered first, if just by virtue of being the only one standing; from the ground, Starscream couldn’t see the tiny Cybertronian perched on top the shack.

<Carrier sent me to see what you were up to.  This looks like fun,> he added, hopping forward and wrapping silver claws around the edge of the roof.

The indignity of the situation caught up with the seeker, who pushed himself to his pedes and squared his pauldrons, wings arched high with something other than secondhand nervousness.

“This… this was an event for officers only!”  One pointed digit poked threateningly at the deployer, as though a finger-wagging would be enough to chase him off.  “You were not invited!”

<Carrier is an officer,> Laserbeak answered smoothly, and even without a faceplate, you could hear him smirking.  <He sent me to take his place… at this _meeting_. >

Starscream sputtered, which Knock Out took as his cue to step in.  Really, what should they have expected?  No one was allowed to do anything, fun or otherwise, without the communications officer having his tentacles in it.

“Actually, it’s quite good that you dropped by, Laserbeak.”  He smiled, every inch of polished plating radiating politeness.  “Having you here will save us from needing to call Soundwave for a groundbridge.  We wouldn’t want to bother him with something so trivial, would we?  He’s far too busy, but we can’t simply leave all this equipment here…”

Since there was no immediately snappy comeback from the deployer, he continued.

“Besides, you wouldn’t want anyone to, ah, veto these little shows, would you?  Then no one would be able to enjoy them.”

The seeker could appreciate the medic’s powers of persuasion, especially when they weren’t being used on him.  He watched Laserbeak’s claws shuffle slightly over the crumbling shingles as he considered the proposal.  If they’d found themselves faceplate to faceplate with Soundwave instead of his deployer, there would have been no chance for negotiations; his deployer, however, was much more malleable.

<I suppose,> he replied after a few moments, having apparently thought about it.  Or conversed with the intelligence officer, but the seeker preferred the former to the latter.  <Can’t just leave our tech lying around for the squishies to find.>

“Exactly.”  Knock Out turned his nod into something like a bow, though maybe it was just an effort to put himself a little closer to Laserbeak’s level.  “I knew you would understand.”

As though on cue, a groundbridge opened a few paces away.  Both of them took the hint and began dismantling their little setup, though the medic was forced to take apart the majority of the wiring and equipment; Starscream nearly pulled the wrong end of the power cord out of a speaker, and was promptly demoted to carrying the energon crates.  Laserbeak supervised, one long claw-tipped tendril occasionally darting into the crushed box of energon chips, fishing out a few intact specimens from the crumbs and dust.


End file.
